180 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



sion of Central Africa, or, deflected northwards of the 

 kingdom of Uropua, they may inosculate with the ridge 

 which, separating the northern negroid races of Islam - 

 ised Africa from their negro brethren to the south, is 

 popularly known, according to Denham and Clapperton, 

 as el-Gibel Gumhr, — Jebel Kamar, — or Mons Lunse. 



The high woody hills of Karagwah attract a quantity 

 of rain. The long and copious wet monsoon divides 

 the year into two seasons — a winter of seven or eight, 

 and a summer of four or five months. The Vuli, or 

 lesser rains, commence, as at Zanzibar, with the Nayruz 

 (29th of August) ; and they continue with little intermis- 

 sion till the burst of the Masika, which lasts in Karagwah 

 from October to May or June. The winds, as in 

 Unyamwezi, are the Kaskazi, or north and north-east 

 gales, which shift during the heavier falls of rain to the 

 Kosi, the west and south-west. Storms of thunder and 

 lightning are frequent, and the Arabs compare the 

 down-pour rather to that of Zanzibar island than to the 

 scanty showers of Unyamwezi. The sowing season at 

 Karagwah, as at Msene and Ujiji, begins with the 

 Vuli, when maize and millet, the voandzeia, various 

 kinds of beans and pulse, are committed to the well- 

 hoed ground. Rice being unknown, the people depend 

 much upon holcus : this cereal, which is sown in Oc- 

 tober to prepare for the Masika in November, has, in 

 the mountains, a short cane and a poor insipid grain of 

 the red variety. The people convert it into pombe ; 

 and they make the wine called mawa from the plantains, 

 which in several districts are more abundant than the 

 cereals. Karagwah grows according to some, accord- 

 ing to others imports from the northern countries, 

 along the western margin of the Nyanza Lake, a small 

 wild coffee, locally called mwami. Like all wild pro- 



